Creation of collaborative study community in engineering studies

Creation of a Collaborative Study
Community in Engineering Studies
Lukkarinen S, Holvikivi J, Hjort P, Mäkelä M & Lakkala M
International Conference on Engineering Education,
20th – 24th July 2015, Zagreb, Zadar (Croatia)

Photo (CC0) from Pixabay
Traditional subject-oriented pedagogical approach
Retention rate in 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
engineering education 42% 40% 43% 45% 49%
Lukkarinen S, Holvikivi J, Hjort P, Mäkelä M & Lakkala M. (2015) International Conference on Engineering Education

17
“Collaborative problem solving and project based learning
have been considered as central methods to educate present day
engineering students, because they simulate challenges that the
students will face in the professional work” ~ (Dym et al. 2005)
open ended assignments
uncertainty
coordination of collaborative efforts
opportunities to analyse, synthesise and
evaluate ideas cooperatively
informal discussions and interactions
share knowledge and experience
get helpful feedback
learn critical thinking
social interactions
engagement in self-directed
collaborative work
communication
joint information processing
coordination
interpersonal relationship
motivation

”Alone we can’t accomplish task like this, so we need team work to do it” – CC BY-SA 2.0 Easa Shamih/Flickr
The aim was to integrate new students into the
study community by keeping them tightly together in
one classroom during the first eight weeks of study.

Collaborative teamwork in practice
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education. 43rd
Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
27
© Petri Vesikivi, 2015
Before
Now
Photo: Mikko Mäkelä, 2015
Changes in facilities — Old PC Laboratory

28Lukkarinen S, Holvikivi J, Hjort P, Mäkelä M & Lakkala M. (2015) International Conference on Engineering Education
20th – 24th July 2015, Zagreb, Zadar (Croatia)Photo: Mikko Mäkelä, 2015
Changes in facilities — New classroom

Information technology —
The first year curriculum 2013-> 2014
33
Course ECTS
Basic Engineering Mathematics 6
Introduction to Calculus 6
Finnish for Foreigners 1 3
Finnish for Foreigners 2 3
Technical Writing and Presentation Skills 3
English Reporting Skills for ICT Projects 3
Introduction to Computing 3
Introduction to Studies 6
Orientation Project 6
Communication Networks 5
Digital Circuits 6
Programming 5
Circuits and Signals 5
Course ECTS
Orientation* 15
Games 15
Robots 15
Networks 15
Contents %
Project and
team work
50 %
Mathematics &
Physics
20-30 %
Languages &
Communication
20-30 %
* Objects for Finnish students

Subject Integration – Orientation Course
34
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
9—12 Math Comm Project Project
12—13 Lunch
13—16 Project Project Math Project
Mathematics &
Physics (20%)
Finnish Language
(15%)Team work &
Project (50%)
Communication
(15%)

The orientation course outline
35
The course was implemented on the first 8 week period of autumn semester
2014. The course outline was arranged around weekly themes, each having
technical, social, epistemological and cognitive goals. Team work methods and
best practices were introduced parallel to these work exercises.
Week Topic
1 Who am I / Who we are (Knowing each other)
2 University services and facilities (Team work)
3 PC assembly (Team work)
4 Laptops, HTML (Team work, mutual help)
5 Photography, photo editing (Me and the other)
6 Portfolios, web-pages (Individually and together)
7 Review & final evaluation
8 Supplementary work

”The Great Egg Drop Experiment”

Testing the Design

Theme 2. University facilities
The second week’s
theme was to know
the university’s
facilities. The
technical goal was
to learn
documentation
skills and to
become familiar
with Metropolia’s
IT systems, as the
social aim was to
practice teamwork
skills.

Theme 3. PC Assembly
46
The third theme
was a five day
crash course on
assembling a PC,
aiming to give
students a real
hands-on
experience about
how to survive
with PCs and
operating systems.
Another goal was
to teach students
to work in teams.
Photo (CC BY-SA 2.0), Paddy:
How To Assemble A Desktop PC
(Wikibooks)

Themes 4, 5 & 6
47
All learning and processing took place in small teams within the
group. Team work methods and best practices were introduced
parallel to these work exercises.
Weeks 4 to 6 tasks were around
• basics of photography,
• photo editing,
• creating group portfolios, and
• web-pages.
The aims were to
• learn basics of portrait photography,
• the properties and formats of digital images,
• digital image editing, and
• basics of HTML and CSS coding.
Each student visited a photography studio and practiced taking portrait
photographs in small teams and used the material to create their own web-page
portfolios.

48
Students’
Web-pages
Lukkarinen S, Holvikivi J, Hjort P, Mäkelä M & Lakkala M. (2015) International
Conference on Engineering Education

Positive
(21)
81%
Neutral
(4)
15%
Negative
(1)
4%
Overall experience — Students (N = 26)
Lukkarinen S, Holvikivi J, Hjort P, Mäkelä M & Lakkala M. (2015)
International Conference on Engineering Education

What was positive or impressive?
57
Students’ evaluation
Getting to know the classmates (6)
Teachers’ help and guidance (6)
Receiving and giving feedback (5)
Teamwork (5)
Learning general knowledge and new technologies (5)
Schedule or rhythm of studying (5)
Overall arrangements (3)
Everything was good (3)
Facilities (2)

What was challenging or disturbing?
58
Students’ evaluation
No problems or everything ok (4)
Unclear content or structure (3)
Finnish language (3)
Schedule, early wakeup time or sleepiness (3)
Exercises too trivial (2)
Too few practice (2)
End products not practicable (2)
Weak base if IT knowloedge (2)
Group presentations (1)
Group work (1)
Unknown evaluation criteria (1)
Difficulties or confusion with technical practices (1)

Teachers’ comments
59
What worked well?
+ teacher collaboration in integrating teaching (3)
+ schedule and arrangements (3)
+ communication with students (3)
+ active and motivated students (2)
+ student learning (1)
+ teaching in general (1)
What did not work well?
- a tight timetable (2)
- difficulties to find time for joint meetings (1)
- the classroom facilities (1)
- subject integration (1)
- transfer students (1)

About goals of the course
60
All five teachers evaluated that the goals of
the course were achieved well.
One teacher thought that the goals were exceeded because the competence
level of the students was so high. One teacher mentioned that the students’
motivation for learning increased from the beginning. One teacher remarked
that even though the goals were met, more time should have been allocated to
practicing the new ways of learning.

What would you do differently?
“Decrease the amount of content.”
“Organize mathematics as a
separate study unit.”
“Less teachers present in the
class at the same time.”
“There should be either first or second
year students, and no other options
should be offered (for transfer students).”

63
In total 48 students started the course and
of those 47 passed.

Challenge — Slow integration
65
Solution
Enable students to acquire basic knowledge of the study
environment together, and after learning to know each other,
they have a large pool of information available. This also helps
students to make friends, because everyone is forced to work with
others.
One of the main problems with international study groups has been
the slow integration to the new university environment and
adoption of proper study habits. They have sought help from
teachers and study advisors, requiring repeated instruction about
the same issues.

Challenge — Unfinalized group works
66
Solution
Through multiple successive group assignments the students get
repeated opportunities to practice collaboration skills as well as
get feedback from peers and guidance from teachers, which many
students mention as central positive aspects of the course
experience.
In educational settings applying collaborative practices, students do
not necessarily succeed very well in group work or progress
expectedly in finalizing their products. One reason is that students are
left too much alone in managing the new ways of working; they have to
learn the critical skills spontaneously or through trial and error.

Encouragement for team work
67
Teams must be encouraged to work as a team by designing
tasks that very clearly benefit from team activity.
Cross-team competition and mutual helping between teams
simulates professional situations within companies or with
clients.
Encouragement for students to present their own opinions
makes them see their capabilities, and their ability to help
others in professional matters.

Final remarks
68
The most important goal from the university point of
view was achieved:
for the first time ever
all but one student
passed their first
period courses.
The findings are not surprising when compared with
other results of project based learning. However, the
faculty in our university has been reluctant to apply
collaborative methods due to the lack of convincing
information. Therefore, close follow-up and
continuing research of the development of student
competences is still needed.

70
1. Collaborative work towards a
shared goal is an efficient and
inspiring mode of study.
Photo: (CC0) skeeze/Pixabay

71
2. Teams must be encouraged
to work as a team by
designing tasks that very
clearly benefit from team
activity.
Photo: (CC0) geralt/Pixabay

72
3. Through multiple successive
group assignments the students
get repeated opportunities to
practice collaboration skills as
well as get feedback from peers
and guidance from teachers.
20th – 24th July 2015, Zagreb, Zadar (Croatia)Photo: (CC0) geralt/Pixabay

Acknowledgments
73
The study was partially
supported by the Lifelong
Learning Programme of
the European Union
under Grant KA3MP-
2013-4764/001-001
Promoting nowledge
Work Practices in
Education; the KNORK
project; http://knork.info.

78Photo: Sakari Lukkarinen, 2013

Creation of collaborative study community in engineering studies

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